Investor Queue Grows By The Day - 300 Plus Waiting For Land

According to a local real estate agent the queue from investors to purchase in the booming Muswellbrook township are growing by the day, directly attributed to mining and infrastructure projects currently underway in the region.

Muswellbrook was touted earlier this year as one of Australia’s top 100 suburbs that achieved the fastest growing rental rates in 2010 according to Australian Property Investor magazine.

Frank Maclean, sales agent for Eastbrook Links Estate said, “I simply can’t keep up with demand. Each day I’m fielding several enquires from Sydney and interstate investors wanting a piece of the boom town – Muswellbrook. I have sold everything in the estate and am anxiously awaiting the next land release to sell.”

“If I had 100 land lots to sell before Christmas they would all be sold. The caravan parks and motels are also full and struggling to cope with the influx of workers to the region. In the estate, one resident is renting several bedrooms in his house for $220 each per week. This place is an ‘investor’s haven’.”

Peter Icklow, CEO of the Monarch Investments Group and property developer of Eastbrook Links Estate, the largest masterplanned community in Muswellbrook said, “The jobs growth continues but the accommodation supply has stopped. There are over three hundred people on the waiting list for the next land release.”

“We are currently facing several issues with the banks as they have reduced their loan to value ratio to 50 per cent and are requesting 100 per cent land sales before they will fund the next part of the project. There is a credit squeeze being placed on developers by the banks. It is taking us almost one year longer to source private funding to be able to move forward and provide affordable housing for the community,” he added.

“Federal and state governments are also contributing to the undersupply of housing in Muswellbrook. The cost to produce a new house continues to escalate due to the increasing number of taxes that are being imposed some of which include GST, land tax, stamp duty, NBN tax, recycled water tax, Section 94 tax and the latest one to add to the list is the carbon tax.”

“A recent report commissioned by the Housing Industry Association highlighted that almost half the cost of every new house built, goes straight back to the government coffers in tax. It is little surprise the state has come to a grinding halt. If you want to stop an industry’s growth all you need to do is keep taxing it. That is exactly what is being done to the property industry in New South Wales,” he concluded.

Expressions of interest are now being taken for land in stage 14 at Eastbrook Links Estate.

For further information about Eastbrook Links Estate contact Monarch on 02 9499 5066 or visit www.monarchinvestments.com

Media contact: Natasha McGuire, Red Leopard PR, Phone: 02 9328 4248 or 04000 90553